Chinch bug (Blissus leucopterus leucopterus) (Say) can cause serious damage in the thick turf of lawns and golf courses. It has caused serious damage in turf along the Eastern seaboard and is a problem in West Virginia. Chinch bugs are tropical insects and are not active in the bluegrass region until temperatures are well in the 70s.
The first symptoms are patches of dead grass in sunny areas, particularly on slopes, mounds, or terraces with a southern exposure or along sidewalks, driveways, or sides of buildings where heat is radiated. These first symptoms are often confused with drought or fungal damage.
The chinch bug is a true bug and generally produces two generations per year after wintering over in the adult stage in rubbish, crevices, and thatch. The insect mates early in the season when the temperature reaches 70° and the female lays eggs over a two- or three-week period. One such female may lay as many as 500 eggs above the surface on stems and leaves, in the thatch layer, beneath the surface on roots, or in almost any protected and warin place.
The nymphs, newly hatched bugs, are wingless and yellow at first, but turn red with a white band across the abdomen. The nymphs feed by sucking juices from roots near or at the surface. After molting through several stages, it becomes black and has prominent wing pads. In 40 to 50 days, after voracious feeding, they reach the mature stage and develop wings. Adults of this brood usually move to a new area before mating and egglaying resumes.
The adult is shaped like a flattened capsule, is black and white in color, and is capable of flight. The adult is about 1/5-inch (4 mm.) long and black with white wings folded over their backs, so that the insect appears to carry a white cross on its back.
Chinch bugs do greatest damage from mid-summer to early fall. The first generations start to die in early fall after a 7- to 8-week life cycle. Succeeding generations hibernate at the approach of cold weather in matted clippings and debris, or in loose soil near the root zone.
